The Terran League
by Ozymandeos
Summary: First contact wasn't with the Turians. Instead an undiscovered race even more deplorable than the Krogan found Earth first and nearly wiped out humanity, but made themselves extinct in the process. Now an extremely paranoid and xenophobic Terran League meets the Council forces, and tensions flare. Can the galaxy weather the coming storm, and still survive the Reapers?
1. Prologue

2007: European Union officially becomes sovereign government of the continent. Headquartered in Switzerland.

2015: First human-manned mission to Mars is launched.

2016: Mission lands, begins research and surveys.

2020: Two more missions are launched. Land later that year.

2032: Over a dozen manned missions to Mars have been launched from Russia, the U.S.A., and the European Union. Space travel is rapidly improving, allowing a round-trip to Mars to take only three weeks.

2033: First permanent settlement is constructed on Mars, with a focus on terraforming.

North and South Korea have a minor border dispute.

2034: Border dispute erupts into full-scale war. U.S. and China enter on opposing sides. Both sides begin to commit atrocities against the other.

2035: War starts to draw in more and more nations. Deemed World War III. Russia and the European Union ally and increase their militaries while trying to remain neutral.

2037: After three years of brutal warfare, the Asian Imperium (Name adopted by the collective coalition of Asian states fighting the U.S.) launches invasions of several South American countries to establish a foothold for land invasion of the U.S. Barely a month later the U.S. has united all major countries on the two continents under the banner of the U.A.C. (United American Coalition)

First successful test of orbital kinetic bombardment platforms conducted over Siberia by joint Russian and European Union scientists. Results passed off as a meteor. Platforms disguised as communications satellites. Codenamed K.A.B. (Kinetically Accelerated Bombardment)

2038: U.A.C. grows desperate as it loses significant lands in Canada and South America, barely able to deflect the attacks against Mexico and the mainland U.S. Breaks multiple treaties and U. N. laws by launching multiple nuclear ICBMs against Imperium cities and military groupings. Imperium responds, and within a week the death toll more than triples as millions of people die. Union and Russian forces step in, bombarding the surviving command structures for both sides from orbit and demanding immediate surrender. Both surrender officially and allow Union and Russian Federation men to assist in evacuating the damaged areas. Rebels from both sides continue attacks, deemed terrorists.

2040: African nations band together as Gri Nimara unites them under her banner through both military and political methods. Accepted as a world power by the Union and Federation, work begins on terraforming inhospitable areas of the continent.

2043: North American land that once made up Mexico, Canada, and the U.S.A. is formally annexed as three self-governing provinces of the Russian Federation. In protest, the remnants of the U.A.C. sabotage the first test of a modified terraforming device from Mars that was intended to stabilize the irradiated Washington D.C.. Three thousand deaths occur as a result.

2045: Ship technology continues to advance. Three permanent colonies on Mars under bio-domes, and two week-round trips to the red planet. Initial terraforming attempts end in failure as solar wind continues to strip away at the atmosphere.

2046: Several biodomes and shipyards created on Luna. Experiments into antimatter's use as a power source begin in stations around Deimos. First successful field tests of GARDIAN orbital laser platforms. Integration into Earth's atmosphere for anti-aircraft and missile purposes.

2050: Imperium rebels hijack a K.A.B. platform and bombard Moscow. Death toll reaches into the tens of thousands.

2051: In response to growing rebel activity, the three superpowers place the former Imperium lands under martial law and execute any and all rebels discovered.

2052: South America bands together under the U.A.C. flag and launches three nuclear missiles at European and Russian targets. GARDIAN platforms destroy the missiles, and the resulting war is more of a massacre. Within three months South America is bombarded into submission, jointly occupied by all three superpowers.

2054: Widespread riots break out when word of Russia's genetic modification projects leaks out. Calm after a few months pass and increased freedoms are given to the people.

2056: The credit is adopted as the world-wide currency.

2062: Successful testing of terraforming device on Earth. Multiple uses discovered. All three working prototypes, each costing upwards of thirty billion credits, are deployed in efforts to clear up irradiated areas of the planet.

2065: Odd readings detected in the southern regions of Mars. Exploration teams deployed from Russian and European bases.

Prototype wrist-mounted computers go into testing in Europe.

2066: Terraforming devices succeed in making irradiated cities and landscapes habitable. Washington D.C. left irradiated as a monument to the past. Machines repurposed to making regions of the Siberian tundra and Sahara desert habitable.

2067: Alien ruins discovered under the Promethei Planum on Mars. Massive uproar on Earth results from learning that we are not alone. Opinions vary from hoping the newly termed 'Protheans' return, to believing that they would enslave or destroy us. Science teams from all three super nations rush to decode the information within the damaged facility.

2068: Humanity begins to understand mass effect technology. Experiments with handheld accelerators and larger ship-mounted weaponry bears promising results.

The European Union, Russian Federation, and African Republic sign treaties commissioning the Earthly Nations Integrated Governmental Military Agency (E.N.I.G.M.A.) initiative. Calls for the construction of dedicated warships equipped with both mass effect technology and temperamental laser weapons. Laser weaponry range is sorely lacking, but it is hoped that the experimental antimatter power sources that are currently in testing will overcome this.

2070: Charon explodes violently. Shards of ice and rock blast outwards and reveal some form of massive alien device. Fleet of thirty-seven damaged warships, two of which are classed as dreadnoughts, enter system. Do not respond to attempts at communication, remain inactive on edge of system. Humans become afraid, funnel nearly all available funding into finishing construction on humanity's first dreadnought, and retrofitting the twelve frigates and four cruisers that currently exist with stronger weaponry and the still experimental antimatter generators.

2071: Alien ships begin to move after nearly a year of inactivity. Attack the shuttle sent to try to communicate them, and move into orbit over Mars. Begin destroying satellites in orbit and taking over stations, culminating in the invasion and slaughter of the great majority of Mar's population of one million and loss of the next-gen terraformers. Crew of the research station 'Exoria', knowing that their research is safe on Earth, destroy dreadnought-class vessel by overloading the antimatter core they were working on. Two cruiser-class alien vessels are confirmed to be destroyed by GARDIAN platforms before communications are completely lost.

Construction of the dreadnought 'Enigma Prime' is completed. Space-directed GARDIAN platforms powered by antimatter are constructed in orbit of the moon, deemed too dangerous to be over Earth.

2072: Fear grows as alien flotilla is detected moving towards Earth. Hastily signed treaties and agreements effectively unite all of Earth under the banner of Terran Emergency Coalition (T.E.C.).

E.N.I.G.M.A. fleet clashes with aliens in orbit of Luna. Mass-Effect based weaponry found to be inefficient against ships, which possess some form of shielding. Laser weaponry, both ship-based and GARDIAN, much more effective. Enigma Prime is only human survivor, barely managing to flee to the ring of defensive emplacements around the Earth after leaving ten alien ships intact with little to no damage.

Aliens bypass Luna, punch a hole in the satellite grid and begin landing troops on Earth. Lose three more ships to GARDIAN platforms. Enigma Prime stays on opposite side of the planet, unable to take on the significantly more advanced alien dreadnought.

Ground arm of T.E.C. established as a mix of the three superpowers' armies. Deemed to be the Terran Infantry Legion (T.I.L.) . Attempts to stop the landing of alien troops, but suffers heavy losses as some kind of shielding stops or deflects extraordinary amounts of firepower, allowing the bipedal lizard-like race to annihilate the human forces as weaponry never seen before is turned on both civilians and soldiers.

2074: Fighting has continued for two years. Large swathes of North America and Africa lost, smaller areas of other continents under alien control. All attempts to build new ships or ground-based defenses capable to wiping out the alien vessels is destroyed from orbit. Death toll already in the billions.

In a stroke of remarkable charity, the few surviving members of the U.A.C. and Asian Imperium band together and send the two frigates they had in reserve into the midst of the alien vessels, and proceed to detonate the stolen antimatter cores and nuclear devices on board, devastating both the satellite grid, Earth's surface, and the alien fleet. Enigma Prime destroys the last alien ship.

2075: Remaining alien ground forces release a bio-weapon based on human DNA, in the form of a creature designed for the sole purpose of hunting down humanity. Overrun shortly after.

2076: Last remaining aliens on Earth are killed. Experiments to reverse-engineer their technology go under way as entire cities are infested with the bio-weapon.

2080: First prototype Element-Zero based shielding reverse-engineered from alien ships placed on Enigma Prime. Experiments into modifying it with antimatter to increase power begin.

Wrist-Computers go into mass-production. Universal translators incorporated on all of them.

2081: Last known hive of the bio-weapon, which still hasn't been named aside from being called 'Abominations', is annihilated through orbital bombardment. Death toll from alien war is estimated at over eight billion, leaving Earth's population at just four billion people. T.E.C. is absorbed into new, two-part nation uniting all of Earth, becomes military branch. Newly renamed Terran League becomes administrative body. Immediately passes "Intra-Solar Act" which prohibits all travel out of the solar-system, including by the experimental Mass Effect drives.

2085: It is decided by a unanimous vote that humanity should remain in the Sol system and terraform Mars, putting all available focus into advancing weaponry and ship technology to prevent anything like the First Contact War from happening again.

2100: Decision to break away from Prothean and alien technology decided. Modified shielding replaces Element Zero based models, composed of supercharged magnetic fields powered by antimatter.

2101: Three more dreadnoughts go into production to join Enigma Prime as reconstruction efforts on Earth begin to decline. Two of the six functioning terraforming generators are sent to Mars as new dome bio-domes are created.

2104: First planet-side antimatter generators placed on Mars, previously deemed too volatile and dangerous for use on a planet, due to risk of containment failure. Only put into use when it's deemed that fusion plants cannot provide the power to create the artificial magnetic field that Mars needs.

2107: Construction of "Shield of Terra", "Sword of Mars", and "Exile of Stars" completed. Classified testing of the experimental Magneto-Revolutionary, or 'Mag Rev', drive end in success. Drives are installed on all compatible warships in the event that humanity ever leaves the system.

2108: Enigma Prime goes into drydock to be refitted with the next-gen 'Saber' laser systems, a larger antimatter core, and a Mag-Rev drive.

Construction on Jump Zero begins. Intended as a safe, isolated base for AI research.

2110: Terraforming effects on Mars begin to bear fruit. Atmosphere thickened enough to allow basic lichens and mosses to grow. Rivers and lakes begin to form.

2120: Jeneva becomes the first truly sapient, self-aware AI. Remains stable for three days. Begins to dissolve into base coding afterwards. All AI research is centered on ensuring the stability of AI's.

2122: Jeneva is successfully brought back online for a four month period. Decays again afterwards.

2130: Mars' atmosphere is deemed suitable for more advanced life. Cannot yet support humans unaided for large periods of time, however. Basic animals are introduced along with several more plant species. Oceans begin to form.

2133: Despite numerous advancements in medical technology eradicating many diseases and greatly increasing lifespan, Gri Namara, founder of the former African Republic and first prime minister of the Terran League dies.

2134: Construction begins on the first leviathan-class vessel begins in stations orbiting Jupiter. Deemed the T.S.F Guardian of Humanity. Government research into 'magic' in individuals that were exposed to Eezo before birth begins.

2140: Construction of the T.S.F. Guardian of Humanity is completed. Replaces Enigma Prime as the flagship of the fleet.

2141: After four decades of failed experiments into miniaturizing the shielding on ships, the decision to use Eezo based shielding and weaponry for ground forces is made. Gen-1 Biotic amplifiers are developed. Lack of training and experience leads to sub-par results. Research into Gen-2 amplifiers begins.

2146: Gen-2 amplifiers fail miserably. Half exposed subjects suffer from major side-effects but have incredible power, quarter suffer side effects with no power, 20% have no increase in power or side effects, 5% have power and no side effects. Gen-3 development begins.

2150: Admiral Hannah Shepard gives birth to Alexandra Shepard after being exposed to Eezo during the decommissioning of an old ship. Alexandra is put on watch for biotic potential.

2155: Hannah Shepard leads a movement composed of several other military and political officials to have the "Intra-Solar Act" retracted on the grounds that expanding to new systems would provide the resources needed to expand the fleet even more. Meets staunch resistance from both houses and the Prime Minister.

2157: Mars' surface is officially deemed habitable to humans. Dome cities dismantled, open-air settlements begin. Nearly a billion people immigrate from Earth to the red planet.

2160: At ten years old, Alexandra shows biotic potential. One of the first outfitted with Gen-3 implants, goes into military training program under Project Vanguard.

2165: Shepard officially graduates the military training program, becomes youngest to go into the N7 program of T.I.L.

2167: Hannah Shepard is promoted to the high council of the E.N.I.G.M.A. project. Given direct command of the Guardian of Humanity. Uses her influence to force relaxation of the Intra-Solar Act, allowing military vessels to scout outside the Sol system. Mag-Rev drives once again prove extremely efficient, catalog dozens of systems with either habitable or profitable worlds. Plans for colonization of multiple worlds drafted.

2168: Intra-Solar Act lightened, sanctioned colonists allowed to travel to an Earth-like planet. Named Eden. While not advertised to the public, this planet was chosen due to its system housing another of the massive alien structures like the one orbiting Pluto.

2169: Defense grid around the Charon structure finished, as many laser platforms orbiting at as Mars. Scouts sent through after much debate, catalog the system beyond and return. Data gathered allows for activation of the newly termed 'Mass Relays' discovered in several systems. Scouts estimate that, while Relay travel is instant, it can take upwards of two weeks for military scouting vessels to travel the same distance with their Mag-Rev drives. Decision made to launch a scouting flotilla through the Eden relay.

2170: Flotilla of three cruisers and seven frigates escorting one scientific vessel under the command of Rear-Admiral Kastanie Drescher depart. Newly graduated N7 Alexandra Shepard is aboard the flagship, the T.S.F. Madrid, as the commander of the marine detachment aboard. Post is only temporary.

* * *

Terran League- As of 2170, the Terran League controls two systems, has a total of fourteen point seven billion citizens, and a total of forty-three thousand two hundred and one warships.

* * *

**Author's Note: I am getting some help with this from other authors on the site, and any ideas borrowed from them are used with permission (At least the ones I know I borrowed are because I asked).**


	2. Chapter One

**Author's Note: I intend to try to keep this story going… but I don't know. My muse is a fickle mistress, and unless constantly fed she curls up and dies. Kind of like a hamster.**

* * *

_Alexandra Shepard-Space Beyond the Eden Relay- 1400 hours, October Eighth, 2170 Terran Standard Time._

I snapped off a quick salute as I came into the bridge at a steady jog. Rear-Admiral Drescher returned it as I asked, "You called for me?"

I was in full armor rather than a dress uniform, having been leading a training session when the commander of the mission called. Through the camera grid on the hull, we'd decided long ago that having glass in any vitally important areas of the ship was too dangerous, the real-time feed of our ships arranged in a semi-circle around the relay was viewable on screens wrapping around the bridge. Half of our flotilla was oriented to deal with anything that came through when the science team activated it, and the other half was aimed outwards in case anything came in-system. Outside of Sol, we could never be sure what would happen.

"The science team reports that they almost have the relay active. I thought you might want to be here, to better coordinate our marines in the case of enemy appearances."

"I doubt that anything will happen. It's been eighty years since the aliens attacked, and we haven't seen anything since. Either they learned not to fuck with us, or the ones we fought were the last of their kind." I paused to shrug. "Whatever the cause, the chances that they'll attack us are miniscule."

"And that's where your mother's way of thinking comes into play," Drescher replied. "She seems to think that because the aliens that attacked before are dead, we're alone. It's so easy to put aside potential threats when you've never seen what they can do. But your mother, knowing as all people do of how many billions we lost in that conflict, still rallied for expansion. And so here we are, poking the metaphorical bear, and just waiting for it to wipe us out."

This wasn't the first time we'd had this argument, and as long as I served under her I knew it wouldn't be the last. "What makes you think they could? In just over a hundred years we've gone from having just one, sub-par dreadnought to a fleet of over forty thousand ships, pumping out at least a hundred every year. We have forty dreadnoughts with another two in production, twenty carriers, and three leviathan-class ships with another in production. And that's not mentioning the hundreds of GARDIAN and SABER satellites orbiting our worlds."

Her rebuttle made more sense than I expected, as she clapped her hands and exclaimed, "Exactly! We've done that in a hundred years. Imagine what a race that has been in space for thousands of years could do. Everything we've done could be just a drop in the bucket compared to their fleets, they could have ships that make the Guardian of Humanity look like a fighter. We're not ready for this, and command is fucking stupid to think otherwise. Besides, people always seem to conveniently forget that the fleet that nearly wiped us out was already heavily damaged. Something had to have done that to them."

"I wouldn't go around insulting our superiors so easily, you know as well as I do that they have eyes everywhere, but you have some good points. But remember, we're under a Code Twilight here. If anything does happen, we've got orders to detonate the antimatter cores to prevent discovery of Earth's location."

We dissolved into another of the arguments that I'd gotten used to after that.

* * *

_Disoran Mallin-En-route to Relay 314- 1420 hours, October Eighth, Terran Standard Time_

"Commander, what do you think is causing the readings here?" my navigator asked.

"Probably just some idiotic pirates trying to find a new base through the Relay. We'll show them what happens when they break Citadel Law," my reply was what everyone could expect from a Turian captain. The readings we were investigating corresponded with someone opening a new Mass Relay, which was extremely illegal. As my small flotilla of fifteen ships hurtled through space to the system, I ordered all crews to be weapons-ready. We wouldn't negotiate with scum like this, bastards that didn't care about possibly releasing another threat like the Rachni on the galaxy.

We dropped out of FTL a few minutes later. The ships didn't match any in our databases, but that was rather common with outlaw ships, which were almost always cobbled together from scrap. They were indeed gathered around the Relay, and it flickered to life as we watched. Filled with righteous fury, we surged forward as their small flotilla hurried to turn and face us.

"Focus on the cruisers. All ships fire…" I paused and ticked down the time until we were in effective engagement range. "Now!"

* * *

_Alexandra Shepard- Space Beyond the Eden Relay- 1422 hours, October Eighth, Terran Standard Time_

Drescher and I were so caught up in our argument that it took three tries for us to register what the sensor tech was shouting, and a few more seconds for us to notice that the alarms were going off.

"… incoming!" I only caught that part of the warning, but it was enough. I realized a few seconds afterwards what was happening and started shouting orders to prepare for possible boarding actions. I was interrupted mid-sentence as the archaic projectiles fired by the presumably alien ships impacted our shielding. Most of the shots hit us and the other two cruisers. Our shielding, designed and equipped only for protection against asteroids and alien weaponry, dropped nearly thirty-five percent from just three impacts. The ship jolted sideways and I was vaguely aware of Drescher ordering all ships to close up and fire their main batteries.

A second volley was fired, bringing our shields down to thirty percent, as we closed into firing range. The reason we had switched from fusion generators to antimatter became apparent as the massive generator down in engineering poured nearly all of its power into the Madrid's four SABER batteries on the prow, sending violet beams of energy out across the vast distances of space. Just like our studies of the last alien ships suggested, their shielding, like ours, was only kinetic. A cheer went out among us as the ship we'd targeted drifted apart in pieces, the SABERs melting cleanly through its hull. Judging from how it didn't explode, we must have missed their generator.

The aliens lost three ships to our cruiser fire, but they got off another volley before the frigates closed into range for their GARDIANs to fire. I was thrown back into a console by the force of what I assumed was our shields collapsing and at least one projectile making it through to the hull. Damage alarms started ringing, and from what I could hear it seemed that we had multiple hull breaches. A few clangs reverberated around the ship as the vacuum seals went into place, and I clambered back to my feet as it registered that three of our frigates had detonated in the brilliant golden flash of damaged antimatter cores.

Then the frigates were finally in range, the four survivors working in pairs to literally cut the alien ships to pieces. They were aided by another volley from our cruisers, and then there were just seven aliens left. Unfortunately, they seemed to have locked in on their targets and had already knocked our shields down. A single shot hit us, but, by either bad luck or design, it went into engineering. As the T.S.F. Orleans exploded in another golden orb to our right, frantic reports came in that the antimatter containment fields were failing. The order went out to jettison the core just in time. Barely three seconds after the lights showing that it had been released came on, the magnetic shielding failed and exposed the antimatter to the normal matter of the core. The resulting explosion damaged our sub-light engines, effectively stranding us, as without the antimatter generator we would never be able to activate FTL, or power anything more than the basic functions and weaponry.

Another of our frigates was destroyed by the time we destroyed the last alien ship. I called for a status report on all the marine squads aboard the ship, and then asked the other commanders, who technically served under me at the moment, for theirs' status. On the Madrid, Alpha through Echo squads were unharmed, and Foxtrot, Geronimo, and Hotel were reporting minor wounds and one dead. Understandable, since they had been stationed in and around engineering. The situation could have been far worse, considering this was first contact with a new alien force.

Considering that my mother was the one who had rallied for us to leave the Sol system, I already knew what I had to do before Drescher had even gotten the full status report from the captains under her command. The status reports coming in from here were grim. About a dozen crew were dead, with twenty more injured, with major damage to several of our weapons batteries and engineering. Several decks had been sealed off due to pressure leakage, and the backup generator had taken a few hits too. While it could run some weak shielding and life support, we couldn't fire any of our longer range lasers without risking a radioactive meltdown that might not destroy the ship, but would definitely kill anyone on it.

"Well, so much for the miniscule odds you mentioned." The Rear-Admiral walked over and crossed her arms in front of me. "I think we can officially say that we have another hostile first contact scenario on our hands."

"So it would seem. We lost half of our ships completely, a thousand dead at the least, and the Madrid is stranded. We might have beaten this fleet, but who knows what they'll throw at us next." I let out a defeated sigh. "You were right Drescher. We might not be ready for this yet. Take what's left of the fleet back to Eden and sound the alarm."

"That's standard procedure for this. But what do you mean for me to? Where will you be?" she asked.

"The Madrid is lost. We can't repair her, and without the antimatter core we can't self destruct well enough to leave no trace. Nothing in this flotilla has anything heavy enough to completely destroy the ship either. We can't tow it, and we can't just leave it here for the aliens to find." I already had my mind set on this course of action, so I continued even as Drescher started to object. "I'm going to stay behind with anyone else who volunteers to. We'll wipe the computers, and overload everything we can from inside so that they won't be able to reverse engineer any of our tech."

"No. Absolutely not. You're an N7, and we only have a thousand of you in all of humanity. I won't let you stay here and waste your talents defending one unsalvageable cruiser." Drescher had already ordered the evacuation over to the T.S.F. Shanxi, our only surviving cruiser, and we were the last of the crew still inside the bridge. So, I acted like I was following her. When she was past the threshold, I slammed the emergency button down and sealed every entrance to the bridge.

I couldn't hear what she started saying as she pounded on the glass, but it was obvious from her face that it was something I should be glad not to hear. I just smiled, shook my head, and mouthed 'Sorry.' After a few minutes, she finally left. I called over the radio to ask for volunteers to stay on the ship with me, and three of the marine squads chose to.

An hour later, we had the severely damaged cruiser to ourselves. The rest of the fleet left to raise the alarm as we set about wiping everything we could on the ship.

* * *

_Councilor Marilus- The Citadel, Council Chambers- 1700 hours, October tenth, Terran Standard Time_

"What do you mean they're missing?" my Asari counterpart exclaimed. "Entire patrol fleets don't just disappear that close to Council Space!"

"I know that Tevos, but they haven't reported back yet. All we know is that they were investigating readings coming from the dormant relay 314," I grit my teeth and mandibles as I replied. Even after working with her for so long her superior attitude still got on my nerves. "We've already dispatched three dozen ships from the First Fleet to investigate. Their report should be coming in shortly. Until then, there's nothing we can do."

"Well then, this meeting is adjourned. Keep us posted, we need to know if this turns into another disaster like the Rachni." And with that Tevos and our other colleague, the rather silent Councilor Linni, departed. As soon as they were gone, I selected one of the numbers from my omni-tool's speed dial. The call was answered on the first ring.

"Alina? Yeah, another headache's coming on." I paused to rub at my fringe and the pulsing pain underneath it. "Alright, I'll see you there in a few minutes."

* * *

_High Admiral Hannah Shepard- E.N.I.G.M.A Headquarters on Ceres- 1730 hours, October tenth, Terran Standard Time_

"You what?" I shouted into the quantum-entangled communicator, which linked us to Eden's headquarters, and earning myself a few glares from the other council members. "What do you mean you left my daughter outside of human space in a derelict cruiser with a faulty reactor?"

"I didn't leave her. She disobeyed a direct order and locked herself in the bridge and refused to leave. A few marine squads volunteered to stay with her." Rear Admiral Kastanie Drescher's blue-tinted face wavered a little over the communicator. "But, in her defense, she has the right intentions. We couldn't destroy the cruiser, and she decided to stay to make sure the aliens couldn't learn anything from the ship. We'd already sent out a dreadnought battle group to get them and destroy the ship, but it'll be another two days before we hear from them."

"Alright…" I sighed and rubbed at my temples. I could just feel another headache coming on. "Get everyone to DEFCON One, and mobilize all the fleets." I knew this was just the beginning of what would turn out to be a very long, very stressful, time, so I took several of the little white pills from my uniform pocket and popped them into my mouth.

* * *

_Alexandra Shepard- Disabled Cruiser Madrid, Space beyond the Eden Relay- 0200 hours, October Eleventh, Terran Standard Time_

"We've got incoming!" I woke up from the shallow nap, which was all the sleep I'd gotten in the past three days, nearly instantly. "Three dozen alien frigates and cruisers just jumped in-system using Eezo-powered drives. Their weapons are powered up, but nothing has been fired yet."

I grinned at the marine as I rushed back into my armor, my biotic barrier flaring dark purple around me as I finished. It settled back to a barely visible lair as I grabbed my shotgun and pistol, before running behind the marine up to the bridge.

"It seems our ruse worked then. They think we're derelict." I flashed the man, more than twice my age, a feral grin as I got to the bridge. Most of the outer cameras were still functioning, so we had a rather good and magnified view of the strange alien ships as they soared through the void, obviously intent on boarding us.

Everything was powered down except for the reactor, which was at its lowest setting. We'd overrode the safety features on all the lasers and melted them into so much scrap already, and everything but the life support protocols had been wiped from the ship. For all intents and purposes, we were dead in the water.

When the aliens launched a shuttle of some kind I rushed with half of the marines on board to the hangar bay, where it seemed to be heading in to land. We took positions in our makeshift cover set up behind the second airlock, prepared to catch these things off guard with a hail of lead. If all went to plan, the alien bastards would never know what hit them.

But, as I'd heard always happens, no plan stays on track once you run into the enemy. In this case, the straw that broke the camel's back was the smoke grenade they threw into the hallway before coming in. It wasted our element of surprise when one of the younger marines opened fire immediately, and left us blind as the thick white vapor obscured everything behind it. Three of my men fell to the staccato fire of mass-accelerators before we ducked back into cover. I got off two blasts with my shotgun before hiding, and either those or the assault rifle bursts the others got off hits something, as evidenced by the grunts and screams from the other side.

Another man fell to a blind shot, his head jerking sideways as he slumped to the ground, leaving me with eight marines. Now that we were in cover we had the advantage. We just had to lay down suppressing fire until the smoke cleared, and then this would be easy. Of course, that was what I thought until a rippling wave of force from a biotic tore through the smoke and sent my men flying out of cover. Their weak shielding didn't do anything to stop the force that sent them flying backwards, straight into the line of fire of the group of aliens that charged through the smoke.

It was obvious from the way they moved that they were a well-trained military, ugly bastards though they were, and that my men would be butchered if I didn't put myself on the line. That was an N7's job after all, to go where nobody else would and do what nobody else could.

I'd only been staggered backwards by the shockwave, instead of thrown, so it was rather simple to send one of my own back at them. Their surprise was evident as I waited a few seconds for my energy to return before charging straight into the group.

* * *

_Saren Arterius- Airlock of damaged alien cruiser - 0215 hours, October Eleventh, Terran Standard Time_

This was not going well for my first active-duty assignment. It was supposed to be a simple posting as a marine in the First Fleet, but then the patrol fleet had come to investigate. All that had been left aside from the wreckage of what had to be our ships was a single damaged alien cruiser, with just small power readings and nothing but life support active. And then I was chosen, as the only biotic on the ships we had, to support the boarding crew.

And now we were stuck in a firefight with hostile aliens who had at least one biotic of their own. As I recovered from a surprisingly powerful shockwave, said biotic was currently preparing to charge straight at me. I didn't have time to move and everyone else was still trying to regain their balance, and with my pistol and rifle still collapsed I didn't have many options. So I took the craziest one, which my brother would have grounded me for when we were kids, and mustered as much force as I could into my hand as I punched forward. My hand connected with the faceplate of the alien's helmet and shattered it. I felt my fingers break from the force, before they hit something on the creature's face. For the briefest of seconds my eyes met its surprised orbs, set in an Asari-like face that was the wrong color. And then our biotic auras touched and exploded.

As I flew through the air the pain in my fingers vanished, only to shortly be replaced by a pain in my shoulder worse than anything from boot camp. Before anything else could pass through my head, I collided with the wall and everything went black.

* * *

_Captain Hans Anders- T.S.F. Exile of Stars, space beyond the Eden Relay- 1300 hours, October Twelfth, Terran Standard Time_

We were barely a minute out of the system within which the future of humanity could lie. Unlike most, I didn't think that any aliens we met would be inherently hostile. But apparently I'd been wrong. They'd fired on our fleet with no provocation, so I doubted that diplomacy would be much of an option. Thankfully, I commanded the T.S.F. Exile of Stars, one of our oldest dreadnoughts. While old, it was still powerful, with a SABER battery big enough to vaporize a frigate in one shot, albeit with a massive cool-down period.

This, hopefully, would be a simple matter. Pick up the people left on the disabled cruiser, destroy it, and retreat back to Eden to join the defense fleet. But something told me that wasn't to be. And that something turned out to be right. The cruiser was gone when we got into the system, an alien… something replacing it. It could have been a different kind of ship, a station, or just a sensor platform. But whatever it was, I wasn't going to take any chances with my crew or the future of humanity. So the main gun, whose cooling systems allowed much larger amounts of power to be funneled into it and increasing its range and power, pulsed for a few seconds and left nothing but a blob of molten slag in its place.

But the damage could have already been done. Seeing that the cruiser was gone, with no alien vessels showing up on our sensors, I ordered an immediate retreat. Odds were, if that had been a sensor platform, then it had already logged where we had come in. There could be an entire alien fleet en-route already, if it hadn't already from what they may have gotten from the cruiser.

* * *

_Councilor Marilus - The Citadel, Council Chambers - 1310 hours, October Twelfth, Terran Standard Time_

"Councilor, you were right. A fleet jumped in just a few minutes ago. One dreadnought-class vessel, eight cruisers, and fifty-two frigates. The dreadnaught's main armament seems to have been a laser of some kind, and it slagged our decoy satellite immediately. We've got their entry and exit vectors, and should be able to follow. Just waiting on your orders." The captain of the fleet we'd sent to investigate reported to me and the rest of the Council through the QEC installed on his dreadnought.

"Captain, give us a moment to discuss this," Tevos said as she muted the communicator. "So, we have a hostile spacefaring race confirmed. How many ships does the fleet there have at the moment?"

"Thirty-five ships, including one dreadnought." I was going to say more when our Salarian colleague butted in.

"Implications troubling…" he muttered. "Turian crew's analysis showed that the cruiser had energy-based primary weapon systems. Possibility that they have found way to increase range of lasers effectively… frightening. Nearly as frightening as the heavily shielded, but empty area in engineering. Suggests damaged main reactor ejected, possibly more powerful than fusion. STG agents waiting to perform more detailed analysis on ship and biological specimens."

"We can't let a possible threat like this stay on in the shadows. We need to send in the fleets and crush them." I gave the expected response for a Turian councilor: advocating war.

"I agree that we should send in the fleets, but think of what we could learn. There's nothing to gain by destroying them. We should send in thousands of ships and awe them, using the Destiny Ascension for the intimidation factor, and send the fleet in once Linni's people get a translator going."

"Alright, I'll start moving the fleets in," my reply came out as more of a sigh. Long-range lasers and biotics with no other available information… something told me that anyone I sent in wouldn't be coming back. But these people had attacked the Hierarchy and killed good Turians, so they would not be getting any mercy.


End file.
